title: Receipt of a false positive test result during routine screening for ovarian cancer: a teachable moment?
abstract: The term "teachable moment" (TM) has been used to describe a life transition or event which motivates an individual to change a behavior or presents an opportunity to intervene to prompt behavior change. We examined whether receipt of a false positive ovarian cancer (OC) screening result may represent a TM. 403 women participating in an OC screening program completed questionnaires assessing demographic, clinical, behavioral, and psychosocial information. The TM was operationalized as expressed interest in receiving health-related information. We hypothesized that among women receiving a false positive screening test result, those women who had experienced greater personal perceived risk for OC as well as distress would be more interested in receiving health-related information than women receiving a normal result. Analyses revealed that women receiving a false positive screening result were less interested in receiving health-related information than women receiving a normal screening result. For women receiving a false positive result, expressed interest in receipt of health-related information was only modestly related to distress and related even less to perceptions of OC risk. Our data do not support viewing a false positive OC screening result as a TM. Potential explanations for the current findings as well as recommendations for future research investigating the TM are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN, USA, floydar@etsu.edu
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Floyd
authors.forename: Rachel F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Steffens
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pavlik
authors.forename: Michael A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Andrykowski
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology; D019160:Endosonography; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007629:Kentucky; D008016:Life Change Events; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology*; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D012309:Risk-Taking